I have read on this forum where some think that Brazil is treating their Indian population in a worthy and proper manner. And yet everything that I read seems, to me at least, to be exposure of a tribe, even if the tribe is down to one person, the study of the tribe and then the elimination of the tribe.

They seem to follow the pattern of the united snakes. No one is ever prosecuted for the killings and the government can't "protect" them after making their presence and resources known to the world:

The Amazon region is in great danger and there is masses of cultural genocide going on. I did not realize until yesterday the sheer numbers that are dying due to the kidney epidemic. It seems that scientists have been working with it for years without finding the root cause. How long does it take to find out what is killing thousands of natives?

Lost Spirit, I always thought that we "enlightened" people of contemporary times would never have allowed what was done to the American Indian less than a century ago (and beyond). I see now how naive I am. As long as greed and corruption rules along with european colonist mindset; well, what can we all do? I ask this seriously and respectfully, what can we, average joe or jane citizen, do?

lilac, I don't have any answer for that. I only know what I have tried to do which is to pull my head out of the red, white and blue sand and try to learn as much as possible and then act when I have a chance. Sometimes it is only the signing of petitions, writing letters or making phone calls which I will do in behave of any tribe on the North and South American continents as well as the indigenous of any country.

I don't know how anyone who reads or learns history from the indigenous point of view could feel "enlightened." I think of what one of my closest friends, a third generation Japanese-American, once said to me in high school. "You know, when you guys came to Japan with your battleships and opened Japan to trade with the US, WE called YOU the barbarians." (his emphasis)

I do feel, however, that the quest for more and more fossil fuels is going to kill us all. The decimation of the Amazon rain forest is pretty much cutting out the lungs of our little world.

The citizens of the US like to thump their chest and proclaim how we are the freest and best country to have ever been. And I ask, "How do you know." I mean we killed off the Incas, Mayans and the Aztecs along with countless other tribes destroying almost all of their culture which included astronomical calculations and observations, water supplies and buildings and then marvel when we "discover" something and ask "How did they do that?"

As long as we allow, what seems to be, every damned thing to be made of or packaged in plastic and transported using fossil fuels, we're screwed. When the US Military is the single largest user of oil worldwide and promotes war in order to have it I again have a problem with that, a really big problem.

Lost Spirit, I typed the word enlightened between quotation marks because so many modern day amerikans think we are enlightened when obviously we are not (online dictionary gives definition as freed from ignorance and misinformation). So many people live in their own little worlds, therefore choosing ignorance; I have thus been guilty and do appreciate the articles you post for they are so important and informative.

Quote:

"You know, when you guys came to Japan with your battleships and opened Japan to trade with the US, WE called YOU the barbarians." (his emphasis)

I agree, my country and my race are barbarians throughout history and to this day. Most of us are unable to grasp true spirituality; that mainly is what brought me to ROL. I'm currently reading the book Native American Testamony by Peter Nabokov. For me this book is truly enlightening; the spiritual mindset of many of these testamonies are a breath of fresh air to me. To the point that I have hope, even though just very little, that humanity will get to a point and realize the only way we will survive is to turn to the teachings and stories of these wise men and their ancestors, and listen and learn. Nice dream, huh?

Sorry to be brief here lilac but I typed out, for me, a pretty long reply to Craig's post on plastic in the ocean. I don't know what key I hit but all of a sudden everything dissapered. This was in my inbox today:

"The finished dam will stretch nearly four miles across the majestic Xingu. It will also radically transform the land and the lives of at least 20,000 people, including thousands of Indians who have lived along the river for centuries. The project includes two dams, two canals, two reservoirs and a system of dikes. More earth will have to be dug than was moved to construct the Panama Canal, according to the environmental group International Rivers."

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